"You will not," said O'Cronicert; "no lad will serve the purpose so well
as myself."
He set off to the house; and when he arrived his wife was diligently
preparing dinner. He told her what he had done, and asked her pardon. "I
pardon you this time," said she: "I know what you have done as well as
you do yourself. The first of your vows is broken."
The king and his great court came to O'Cronicert's house; and the wife
had everything ready for them as befitted a king and great people; every
kind of drink and food. They spent two or three days and nights at
dinner, eating and drinking. They were praising the dinner highly, and
O'Cronicert himself was praising it; but his wife was not. O'Cronicert
was angry that she was not praising it and he went and struck her in the
mouth with his fist and knocked out two of her teeth. "Why are you not
praising the dinner like the others, you contemptible deer?" said he.
"I am not," said she: "I have seen my father's big dogs having a better
dinner than you are giving to-night to the King of Erin and his court."
O'Cronicert got into such a rage that he went outside of the door. He
was not long standing there when a man came riding on a black horse, who
in passing caught O'Cronicert by the collar of his coat, and took him up
behind him: and they set off. The rider did not say a word to
O'Cronicert. The horse was going so swiftly that O'Cronicert thought the
wind would drive his head off. They arrived at a big, big palace, and
came off the black horse. A stableman came out, and caught the horse,
and took it in. It was with wine that he was cleaning the horse's feet.
The rider of the black horse said to O'Cronicert, "Taste the wine to see
if it is better than the wine that you are giving to Brian Boru and his
court to-night."